Nasdaq Down Over 300 Points; Medtronic Posts Upbeat Earnings

Author: Avi Kapoor | August 19, 2025 01:11pm

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite falling more than 1.5% on Tuesday.

The Dow traded down 0.12% to 44,859.42 while the NASDAQ fell 1.53% to 21,298.54. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.68% to 6,405.48.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares jumped by 1.5% on Tuesday.

In trading on Tuesday, communication services stocks fell by 1.4%.

Top Headline

Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) posted better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter and announced key board appointments on Tuesday, naming John Groetelaars and Bill Jellison as independent directors, effective immediately.

Medtronic reported strong first-quarter 2026 results, with sales hitting $8.58 billion, surpassing the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. This marks an 8.4% increase year-over-year, with organic growth of 4.8%. Adjusted earnings of $1.26 per share also beat expectations of $1.23.

Medtronic reiterated its fiscal year 2026 organic revenue growth guidance of 5%. The company revised its fiscal 2026 revenue growth on a reported basis from 4.8%-5.1% to 6.5%-6.8%. It raised sales guidance from $35.15 billion-$35.25 billion to $35.72 billion-$35.82 billion versus the consensus of $35.32 billion.

Equities Trading UP
           

• Plymouth Industrial REIT, Inc. (NYSE:PLYM) shares shot up 51% to $22.14 after the company received an unsolicited proposal from Sixth Street Partners to acquire all outstanding shares for $24.10 per share.
• Shares of Gaxos.ai Inc. (NASDAQ:GXAI) got a boost, surging 82% to $1.9999 after the company announced the launch of its Art-Gen.AI video creation platform.
• Laser Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ:LASE) shares were also up, gaining 69% to $4.1550 after the company reported a year-over-year increase in quarterly financial results.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Thumzup Media Corporation (NASDAQ:TZUP) shares dropped 44% to $4.7752 as the company announced plans to acquire Dogehash Technologies, Inc.
• Shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) were down 43% to $23.86. On Tuesday, Viking Therapeutics released the much-awaited data from its Phase 2 trial of VK2735 pill, the company's dual agonist of the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptors.
• SFL Corporation Ltd. (NYSE:SFL) was down, falling 15% to $7.76 following the release of its second-quarter financial results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $62.74 while gold traded down 0.3% at $3,368.10.

Silver traded down 1.4% to $37.505 on Tuesday, while copper fell 1% to $4.4280.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.70            %, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.42%. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.37%, Germany's DAX 40 gained 0.46% and France's CAC 40 rose 1.23% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Tuesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.38%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng falling 0.21%, China's Shanghai Composite falling 0.02% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 0.46%.

Economics

• U.S. housing starts climbed by 5.2% from the previous month to an annualized rate of 1.428 million in July.
• Building permits declined by 2.8% to an annualized rate of 1.354 million in July.

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Posted In: GXAI LASE MDT PLYM SFL TZUP VKTX